Abstract

Recent theoretical treatments of the laser with a saturable absorber have utilized multilevel rate equation models with considerable success in simulating experimental results.¹ Such treatments do not incorporate the detuning of the cavity or of the absorber atom line center from the amplifying atom line center. This additional complication may have a significant effect on the dynamics of the system, as has already been strongly suggested by an examination of the stability of the steady states of a semi-classical model which assumes atoms with only two levels.² This paper extends this work on the two-level model into the timedependent regime. The results are obtained from a particularly convenient transformation of the semiclassical time-dependent equations for a homogeneously broadened, two-level atom model of the laser with a saturable absorber.

© 1989 Optical Society of America